Study: Managing the IP Process : IP management in practice and the support of IT solutions

This study analyzes how intellectual property (IP) is managed in
practice, which as-pects influence IP managers and especially how IP
software can support IP manage-ment. By investigating 114 industrial
firms and law firms worldwide, we found that the overall economic
situation impacts IP management and that the IP budget often
de-pends on performance indicators like total revenues. Furthermore,
the study confirms the result of earlier research that the external
commercialization of IP is becoming in-creasingly important. The
analysis of software support for IP processes indicates a decreasing
use of IP software along the IP value chain. Firms use software
mainly in the early IP generation phase, e.g. for search processes
for absorbing technological developments. Further-more, patents are
the form of IP rights which are supported most by software.
Regard-ing software solutions there is a strong trend towards
integrative systems which sup-port different functions and towards
customized solutions. The findings reveal improvement potential on
both firm level and software provider lev-el. While firms should
take into account the use of software to optimize their IP
man-agement processes, software providers should adapt their tools
better to the user re-quirements, especially by developing
integrative software systems.

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